A small group protesting the government shutdown near the Johnson Space Center drew considerable attention Tuesday from passers-by and a media swarm.

Cars passing the busy intersection at NASA Road 1 and Saturn near the entrance to the space center honked and gave thumbs up signals to about two dozen protesters surrounded by reporters and cameras.

No shutdown supporters were in sight, and honks of encouragement continued for nearly the entire two-hour protest by a group of predominantly union workers, many of them furloughed from the space center by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Friendswood, inspired the protest by remarking that most federal workers at the Johnson Space Center were unconcerned about Congress failing to pass a bill to fund the government, according to the protest organizer, Bridget Broussard-Guidry.

Stockman told Spacenews.com a week ago, "Our calls from JSC employees this week are about nine to one in favor of standing strong against Obama's budget."

Vise said he is one of about 250 workers furloughed from their jobs with NASA contractor Pacific Architects and Engineers. Vise assigns a lot of the blame to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a strong supporter of tying reopening the government to defunding the Affordable Care Act.

Buchanan, who participated in the protest, said that of 38,000 federal prison employees nationwide, 1,500 have been furloughed and the rest are working without pay because they are deemed essential.

"Ted Cruz needs to come out here and see that these are regular people with families, many of them veterans," Buchanan said. "I just think he is out of touch with the reality that these are real Americans."

Ken Parr, 62, of Port Bolivar, joined the protest after hearing about it on television and was given a sign asking the U.S. House of Representatives to "Take a vote 2 open the government."

Parr said Republicans deserve some blame, but he assigns more to President Barack Obama.

"If he can't get it together within the next 30 days he ought to resign," Parr said.